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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Jewish Extremism : Out of Control

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (AP) – A shy 8-year-old schoolgirl has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war.

Naama Margolese is a ponytailed, bespectacled second-grader who is afraid of walking to her religious Jewish girls school for fear of ultra-Orthodox extremists who have spat on her and called her a whore for dressing "immodestly."

Her plight has drawn new attention to the simmering issue of religious coercion in Israel, and the increasing brazenness of extremists in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community

5 comments:

The ongoing violence in Beit Shemesh by hooligans has taken an even uglier turn recently as it is being directed against school-age children and their parents. It is now receiving front-page international coverage due to the involvement of Israeli elected officials at the highest levels.

As the colossal Chilul Hashem and distortion of genuine Torah values is escalating, it is incumbent on decent Jews worldwide to do our part to distance ourselves from this behavior and loudly proclaim that this is not the way of our Torah. It is of paramount importance that we do so not only before the media and the world at large, but also that we explain this to our impressionable children in the starkest of terms. Our work with children and teens over the years has clearly indicated that "Hate Does Not Have An Off Button" - meaning that the toxic message of intolerance is one that has long-term harmful effects.

Many people in our community insist, "Everyone understands that these are a small bunch of radicals who do not have the support of any rabbinic leaders." But that is simply not the message resonating around the world nowadays.

The 1% is getting all the media attention due to the passiveness of the 99%.

Several years ago, readers of this website conducted our own peaceful "hafgana" (protest) when the demonstrations in Eretz Yisroel were spinning out of control, by writing respectful emails to the editors of The Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz condemning the violence in the clearest terms.

By all accounts, it was very successful as each of the papers received more than 100 emails from Jews worldwide. The Jerusalem Post designated a letters-to-the-editor section, where they printed many of the responses and actually wrote a column noting that there was a grass-roots movement by charedi Jews worldwide condemning the violent behavior.

We respectfully ask that you do the same at this critical time - with the eyes of the world focused on Beit Shemesh. Kindly take a few moments to cut and paste this message or write something along these lines (including, if possible, your name and city to lend credence to your letter) and email them to: letters@nytimes.com letters@jpost.com feedback@haaretz.co.il

"As a Torah Jew, I am deeply distressed by the harassment and violence in Beit Shemesh - all of which is diametrically opposed to the teachings of our Holy Torah. Lest our silence be misconstrued as passive acceptance of this behavior, we condemn it in the strongest terms, as do the vast, overwhelming, majority of Torah Jews worldwide."

We ask that you show public support for this effort by posting your name and the city where you live as a comment on the bottom of this thread so that members of our community and the media at large can see that this is a broad-based effort.

Thank you very much for your time and may this effort be helpful in restoring k'vod shamayim.

"Many of the modern religious women in Israel wear tight provocative clothing. That's the issue. "

So what? They should be spat at then? This, your attitude is why there is no Temple in Jerusalem. You want to justify this despicable behavior because they wear tight clothing? You think this woman and her daughter don't deserve love and respect, to be treated with human decency because of their clothes? You have missed the point entirely - of loving your fellow Jew - you who so proudly state "You need to live there to know what's happening." However you judge you will be judged by Hashem - mida kneged mida.

Thanks Anonymous. I had to delete the other Anony's orginal comment, as it was total hearsay and loshon hora as well as it mentioned actual names. [Apart from the fact that it was a ridiculous comment!]

Art: Lisa Viger ﻿ from the writings of Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn of Lubavitch [the Rebbe Rashab] On account of our many transgres...

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